.NET

LINQPad – Amazing power-tool. Instantly test .NET code snippets, query your database, create and analyse LINQ/Entity framework queries. Most used by me to create, analyse and run LINQ to entities queries. It will show the generated SQL and query you database for you. Great learning utility also. It has a ton of code examples from the book C# 3/4/5/6/7 in a Nutshell.

ReSharper – Helps you writing better code. Tons of hints for improvements. Great test-runner. Stopped using it lately for performance-reasons but will try again after upgrading my machine.

Graphics

Media

ActivePresenter– Records your screen and microphone. Used it for recording tutorials (screencast for YouTube). It also makes a great tool for helping you test your GUI, as you can record what you are doing and what is happening. When something breaks, you can replay and go back in time. Version 7 did not work for me, better try Version 6 of their program while it’s still available.

EyeLeo – Prevents eye strain. Gentle reminders now and then to get your eyes off the screen.

Tomighty Pomodoro timer – Get more done with more breaks. The Pomodoro technique works out great for development. Moving my body every half-hour amps up my creativity and helps me getting unstuck. I prefer to move my body, jog for a couple of minutes. Many times it’s off the screen when the aha-moments hit me.

For a much more extensive list of tools check out the resource from Scott Hanselman. Last time I checked it has been updated in 2014, but still of great value for discovering stuff:

Summary: I will show you how to create a very simple web application with user authentication. Users can register, log in, create diary entries (text) and visualize their entries.

In part one we will create, test and refactor the application locally on our computer. Although the app is very simple we will touch a lot of different technologies. You will also see some issues you may experience when starting with ASP.NET MVC in Visual Studio and how to fix them.

In part two we will publish our app to the cloud (Azure). Please subscribe to get notified when part two is finished.

Show result of data-model change: “Server Error in Application. The model backing the ‘ApplicationDbContext” context has changed since the database was created. Consider using Code First Migrations to update the database”